Home range size of domestic cats in Spain

[Description of methods used for collection/generation of data] Sixty-four different domestic cats were tagged with three different types of devices (Tractive IKATI GPS-GPM collars (https://tractive.com), 48 cats; backpack-GPS-datalogger CatLog2 (http://www.mr-lee.com/science.htm), 14 cats; and e-Obs GPS collars 1A (https://e-obs.de/products.html), two cats. Every type of device had its own tracking schedule. Tractive collars can not be programmed, and they, in normal conditions, take one location every 3 minutes, but it varies depending on animal activity and movement (see https://help.tractive.com/hc/es for more details). Backpack GPS dataloggers were programmed to take fixes every 10 min. Finally, e-Obs collars were programmed to take fixes every 4 hours. Cats tagged with Tractive collars were managed by volunteers over Spain, who wished to participate in the study by tagging their cats. Every volunteer fit the collar to its cats and charged the collar battery when necessary. These cats were tracked during a period ranging between 10 and 66 days, but for different reasons, collar batteries were not continuously working, so the number of effective days of tracking ranged between 10 and 34 days. Three cats were tracked in two different periods. Backpack dataloggers were used to track the movements of an unattended cat colony in the municipality of Abla (Almería province), on the border of the Sierra Nevada Natural Park, and one free-ranging isolated individual living in the Sierra Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park in the municipality of Jabugo (Huelva province). These cats were trapped with trap boxes baited with commercial pellet cat food, and immobilized with Ketamine (Imalgene 100mg/ml) and Medetomidine hydrochloride (Domtor 1mg/ml) according to manufacturer dosage instructions, before installing or removing the backpacks. The effect of anaesthesia was reverted with Antisedan 5mg/ml. For these cats, the tracking period ranged between 8 and 58 days. Finally, two cats living in an isolated house inside the Sierra Nevada Natural Park were tagged with e-Obs collars for 49 and 82 days. These cats were tame, so we managed to put the collars without trapping and immobilizing them. The study was undertaken with the correspondent permissions (including the bioethics one) of the Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Desarrollo Sostenible of the Junta de Andalucía, the Sierra Nevada National and Natural Park, and the Dirección General de la Producción Agrícola y Ganadera of the Junta de Andalucía.

[Methods for processing the data] All home range estimation analysis was carried out in the program RStudio (Posit team 2023) using the ‘adehabitatHR’ package (Calenge 2023; version 0.4.21). We calculated home range sizes by minimum convex polygon (mcp) methods using 100% and 95% of valid fixes (see below) and by the kernel methods using 95% and 50% of valid fixes for each individual cat. These different home range estimations allow comparisons with the most often used methods in the literature. In all cases, we used the default settings within the package ‘adehabitatHR’.

[EN] This dataset describes the home range size of 64 domestic cats living in different sites in Spain during the years 2021, 2022 and 2023. Cats were tracked with three different types of devices during periods ranging from 8 and 82 days, and they were owned cats living associated with a house (50 individuals), colony unattended cats (13 individuals), and one isolated unattended cats living in a natural area. Four estimates of home range size are presented: Minimum convex polygon method using 100% and 95% of valid fixes, and kernel estimates using 95% and 50% of valid fixes. Additional information on the number of tracking days, date of tracking, number of fixes, or details on cat individuals are also provided.

[ES] Este conjunto de datos describe el tamaño del área de campeo de 64 gatos domésticos que vivieron en diferentes lugares de España durante los años 2021, 2022 y 2023. Los gatos fueron rastreados con tres tipos diferentes de dispositivos durante períodos que oscilaron entre 8 y 82 días, y eran gatos con dueño, viviendo asociado a una casa (50 individuos), de una colonia de gatos desatendida (13 individuos) y un gato desatendido que vivía en un área natural. Se presentan cuatro estimas del tamaño del área de campeo: método del polígono convexo mínimo utilizando el 100 % y el 95 % de las localizaciones válidas, y el método de kernel usando el 95% y el 50 % de las localizaciones válidas. También se proporciona información adicional sobre el número de días de seguimiento, las fechas de seguimiento, el número de localizaciones o detalles sobre los gatos.

This study was funded by MICINN through the European Regional Development Fund [SUMHAL, LIFEWATCH-2019-09-CSIC-04, POPE 2014-2020].

Peer reviewed